The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog and other stories from a child psychiatrist’s notebook
Authors: Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D. and Maia Szalavitz
New York: Basic Books 2007.

In this elegantly and sensitively written book, Dr. Bruce Perry does for child psychiatry what Oliver Sacks has done for neurology*.  Perry and his co-author make accessible to the general reader both the science and the art of working as a mental health therapist with some of the most vulnerable members of our societies. The cases let us enter not only the lives of the terribly damaged children that are described, but also the detailed clinical thinking of someone whose deep-seated humanity has allowed him to make the very best use of the most up-to-date brain science, to which he has also contributed. As such it is as much intellectual history as it is case-study, and all the stronger for it. (more…)

The Science of Parenting:  How today’s brain research can help you raise happy, emotionally balanced children. 
Author: Margot Sunderland.  DK Publishing Inc. 2006

This is a wonderful book that parents and professionals should enjoy reading either cover to cover or dipping into as needed.  Packed with photos & laid out in multiple formats, it provides advice to parents supported by brain research, personal case studies and invitations for reflections on how they are doing as parents.  Key areas covered include crying and separations, sleep and bedtimes, discipline, coping with trying times, and helping a child become socially intelligent.  As world renowned expert on emotional development Jaak Panksepp says in the forward, “This superb manual for child rearing describes how healthy minds emerge from emotionally well-fertilized brains”.   I could not agree more. 
Dr. Susan Foster-Cohen, Brainwave Trust presenter.

 HELPING YOUR BABY TO SLEEP:  Why Gentle Techniques Work Best
By Anni Gethin & Beth Mcgregor

Time to end the distressing practice of ‘controlled crying’.

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